Appliances, and in particular residential major appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, stovetops, ranges, etc., are inherently limited in the amount of power they can instantaneously consume by the power rating of the electrical circuit they are connected to. As an example, a residential dishwasher for use in the United States is generally is limited to a total draw of about 1500 Watts at any given time as it is generally designed for use with a standard residential powerline source such as a 15 Amp, 110-120 Volt residential electrical circuit. As a result, the sizes of the primary electrical loads in a dishwasher, most notably the pump and heating element used to circulate and heat wash fluid, are often limited so as to stay within the power rating of a standard residential powerline source. Doing so, however, can lead to lower performance than might otherwise be desired, as for example a smaller heating element has a lower heating capacity, and thus incorporating such a heating element in a dishwasher can lead to longer cycle times to accommodate the time required to heat the wash fluid to a suitable temperature for washing dishes. Likewise, for refrigerators, compressor sizes may be limited due to the amount of current draw at start up.
Similar issues exist for other appliances, often leading to design compromises being made and/or lower performance being realized to accommodate the power ratings of powerline sources. Therefore, a need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of optimizing appliance performance within the power constraints of standard residential circuits and other powerline sources.